Your Guide To Surviving In The End Times - From The Editors of ChristianMoney.com

08/02/2011

Keeping Safe by “Reading” Strangers

A lot of what we speak about has to do with survival in the more “macro” sense – how to address issues of preserving important resources during times when the entire community in which you’re living is compromised, that sort of thing. However, we do not want to neglect discussions that might be more pertinent to everyday survival. The reasons for this are twofold: first, it never hurts to regularly visit the subject of safety and survival in normal conditions, as those are the conditions in which you likely find yourself currently, and also, many of the kinds of personal survival and safety situations that you might encounter under normal conditions will quite obviously have relevance during distressed conditions when the stakes are much higher.

That said, we wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the matter of safety in a public setting, and specifically, the act of engaging in pre-emptive safety by knowing how and when to interpret, or “read,” the behavior exhibited by strangers when you’re walking about from place to place in order to do the family business or perhaps enjoy a night out on the town.

Strangers who begin to talk to you. Call us cynical if you want, but the days of people initiating some sort of verbal exchange with you simply because they are neighborly or friendly have long passed. Even if they’ve not absolutely disappeared outright, the nature of the world today demands that you behave as though they have. Think about it logically – what basis does a perfect stranger have for initiating a conversation with you, another (to him) perfect stranger? People generally do this because they want something, and the something they want might be your money, or worse. Your first best move in this circumstance is to keep moving; as soon as you stop moving, the psychology that takes over is one that suggests that you are bending to his will by becoming a captive audience. Keep moving, ignore him, but make use of your peripheral vision to watch, as necessary, for his continued movements.

Strangers who stare at you. Even if it’s a case of a guy who finds himself momentarily dumbfounded by a woman he finds to be very attractive, prolonged staring is still pretty unusual. As soon as you realize that someone looking at you has gone from the casual glance, or even a slightly lingering glance, to the fixed gaze or stare, that’s when it’s time to invoke some preliminary defenses. Generally speaking, you don’t want to engage this person in direct eye contact, as you don’t want to give him the impression that any sort of connection has been established, a connection that might allow him to feel emboldened in some way. Continue to go about your business casually, again using your peripheral vision to keep an eye out for his movements. If you get the sense that this is going to continue, exit the area, at least for the time being.

Strangers whose movements appear “tied” to yours. If someone takes an interest in you or what you are doing, one of the ways you will be able to tell that is by the way that his movement is no longer independent of yours, but is, instead, now a function of it. You move one way, he moves the same way; you stop moving, he stops moving; you go into a store, he goes into the store, or at least stops and lingers outside of the same store. People who are engaging in this sort of behavior but who don’t wish to be noticed will try to be very clever about it, but the good news is that they can only be so clever; ultimately, if they want to track your movement and stay within striking distance, they have to remain somewhat visible themselves. The point is to watch for that movement, and if you are satisfied that it could be trouble, call on your peripheral vision to keep an eye out as you move toward an area of safety.

What we’re not talking about here are the more obvious sorts of threat indicators, like someone explicitly screaming at you, etc. We’re all of the awareness to know that such behavior signals trouble. What we’re focusing on here are the more subtle cues that can telegraph at least the possibility of trouble, and which, by their natures, give you an opportunity to quietly resolve the threat by moving away from it. It’s rare that someone will, in an animated fashion, all of a sudden engage a stranger directly without any sort of perceived provocation. The trouble that comes from strangers usually does so from a more covert beginning, and it is up to you to be aware of the signs of that telegraphed behavior in order to keep you and your family safe.

James L. Paris is the Editor-In-Chief of Christian Money.com and the author of more than 20 books on personal finance. He studied biblical prophecy while a student at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. Along with completing ROTC survival and marksmanship training, he is certified as a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Selling The Mark Of The Beast – How The Antichrist Will Convince The Masses To Willingly Take The Mark.

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com, is an author & instructor in the realm of personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self-defense. A U.S. Army veteran, he has earned a B.A. degree in psychology from Stetson University, numerous licenses and certifications in the financial services industry, and the Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning designations from the International Sports Sciences Association. He is the co-author of the yet to be released book, Selling The Mark Of The Beast – How The Antichrist Will Convince The Masses To Willingly Take The Mark.

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I was approached by a tall man in a Wall Mart parking lot who ask me if I knew how to take something off his bumper on his car. I kept my distance from him and said NO go inside and ask someone. His plan was to nab me. Thank God for people like Oprah who have wised us up. I am a small, slight lady and would have had no defense against him. Be very aware of strangers in parking lots or anywhere!